Tortoise tour

Only a mother could love it!

View more photos 

After an early breakfast & the departure of a couple of our group (who were only on a 5-day tour), we headed to the Darwin Station on Santa Cruz. This is a kind of breeding place where they hatch lots of tortoises (of the huge variety) before releasing them into the wild at the age of five years. They reach maturity around 30 years of age, but apparently  continue to grow until they are 70! We got to see TONS of tortoises including Lonesome George - so called because he is the last of his kind. They are desperately trying to get him to mate with a female tortoise (he has a few in his pen), but he just doesn't seem to know what to do with them. Bless. But as he's only 80 years old at the moment, they've still got plenty of time to work something out (as they can live up to 200 years!).

Puerto Ayora harbour

View more photos 

We had some time to spare in town before heading back onto the boat for lunch. This meant more time for shopping :o), as well as a nice refreshing drink. I also spent some time chilling out down by the harbour - watching the comings & goings of the cargo boats.

In the afternoon we were back on the island, ready for a trip into the Santa Cruz Highlands where we went in search of... more tortoises!!! By the end of our walk through the highlands I was feeling a little tortoised-out, I have to say! However, I was very grateful of the fact that today for the first time since Sunday I was actually feeling 100% fine again. Yippeeeeeeeeeee :o)  On the way back to the port we stopped off to visit a lava tube - a kind of escape hatch for volcanic lava to travel from the volcano top sometimes as far out as the sea. That evening we had another trip into town, where I was actually able to partake in the cocktail-drinking festivities. A couple of pina coladas later I was a very happy girl!

Pretty flower :o)

View more photos 

We ventured back to the Pelikano around 9.30pm & then I went out in one of the pangas with Cesar (our Capitan) & Ignacio (one of the boat crew) to cruise around the harbour - nosying at some of the HUGE cruise ships that were anchored there. We also spied some baby sharks in the water. Once back on the boat it was time to secure the pangas, ready to drive onto Floreana Island (some 4 hours away). I sat up in the bridge with the drivers, attempting to practice my Spanish, but it was quite hard to hear over the sound of the engines - ha ha! So after a while I gave up & headed to our onboard bar for a couple of cuba libres :o)